Cuba: Santiago de Cuba – Old American and Soviet Cars
Cuba had the highest per capita car numbers in the first half of the 20th century and it was flooded with the latest models American luxury vehicles, and also almost all American models were initially tested in Cuba before being available in the USA. Then the revolution happened in 1959, and the embargo closed the doors shut both ways – no new American cars and no way to export them out of the island. All the car parts fell under the embargo as well. From there on and until today, the Cuban car owners had to improvise and keep their cars running and in pristine shape by stuffing them with self-made or Soviet car parts ripped from Ladas and Volgas. All the cars after the communist revolution came from the USSR, and Cuba is a living museum of the Soviet auto industry – there are more Soviet cars in Cuba then possibly in the entire former Soviet Union. Everywhere you look – there are Ladas (Zhiguli), Moskvitch, Volgas, GAZ, ZIL, KAMAZ, MAZ, and so on. Totally back in the USSR of the 80s and 90s, an absolute time warp.
